A Scottish man who struggled to get on the property ladder in the UK has now bought three homes in Bulgaria on eBay for around £3,000 each.
Delivery driver Rob Davies, 35, from the west coast of Scotland, had been looking abroad to buy a home for some time before he stumbled upon the enormous home in Golyamo Krushevo.
He documents his project to make the house liveable on Help! We Bought a Village, which aired on Channel 4 this afternoon.
And although the house, itself was a bargain, Rob has an enormous task on his hands, as the property has no fitted bathrooms, a kitchen, windows, electricity, or running water, and is believed to have been abandoned since the 1980s.
However, despite the huge amount of work he must complete on the home, Rob has revealed he doesn’t regret his decision and believes he is investing in his family’s future.
A Scottish man who bought a six-room house in Bulgaria on eBay, is set to appear on Channel 4 ‘s ‘Help! We Bought A Village’
The excited homeowner says: ‘I’m always looking for properties on the market, to see if there are any bargains out there.
‘I was just doing a random search on eBay, just typing in properties, just to see what there is. And that’s how it came about.’
The father adds he was ‘sold’ on the property after seeing just a few photos of it.
‘I sent them a message saying I was interested, I want it, I think we paid a £200 deposit, got the keys and the rest is history,’ he says.
‘It was basically four walls with a roof, but, it was ours. It felt amazing to actually go, we want a property, we can’t do that in the UK.’
With a leaking roof and no windows to make the property water-tight, the programme follows Rob as he assesses the water damage to the property’s floors and ceilings.
He believes it was built over 100 years ago, but since the 1980s it’s been empty and abandoned
On a whim and based on the photographs alone Rob made the life-changing decision and paid an incredible £3000, for a six room detached house on half an acre of land – without even telling his wife
The excited home owner said ‘I’m always looking for properties on the market, to see if there are any bargains out there
The houses need a lot of work, and Rob has a lot of ideas, thinking they could be ‘lovely future homes’ for his sons
Despite being dubbed a ‘bargain’ by the show, the house has been empty for 25 years and the roof has been leaking, so the first thing Rob needs to do is assess how much damage there has been to the floors and the ceilings
The village Rob’s three properties are in is very small and almost completely abandoned, with only one shop that doubles as a pub
When he begins the project, Rob discovers ageing bundles of twigs inside the ceiling used for insulation and a dusty chipboard that needs to come down, in attempt to see if any of the original beams can be restored.
He reveals he thought the project would be much easier than it turned out to be as he spends time in Bulgaria without his family.
After buying the first house in 2023, Rob fell in love with the village and began to think about leaving a legacy for his children – which prompted him to buy another two properties in the region.
With the cheapest of the houses costing him £1500 and £3000 respectively, he hasn’t ruled out buying more.
Help! We Bought A Village series two starts on Channel 4 on Monday 16th October at 5pm, you can tune it to watch the rest of Rob’s journey.
The show follows Brits who restore empty and unloved settlements that are heading for collapse.
It’s previous season saw a family from Manchester renovate a holiday complex in France and another man recue an abandoned hamlet in Spain.